dvorak layout

[Icarium]

Maybe having an entire extra keyboard would be a good idea. If you place it on top of the regular keyboard like in some Access boards it could be more ergonomic in the sense of "moving is good"

[bhtooefr]

What about moving modifiers to foot pedals, if we're getting to that point? (Although I wouldn't be able to use that - I fidget way too much.)

[Icarium]

That's the problem most people have with foot pedals. From an ergonomics point of view fidgeting is probably good. I think the fact that ergonomics and typing speed may be opposing criteria is usually somewhat neglected in layout discussions.

[Hubbert]

I have often thought of pedals, but, more than fidgeting, feet are much slower than hands, and (perhaps most importantly), the coordination between hands and feet is really slow, and coordination speed is really important in terms of modifiers. It feels like you can press 4 or 5 keys with your hands in the time it takes to push a pedal (in my brief experience).

Plus they're not portable.

[Jim66]

Ok well I've given dvoark another go, this time with typing master pro. Three days in and it's going much better. I'm still using qwerty for everyday/work typing at the moment but hopefully I'll be phasing it out soon.

[bpiphany]

I never got around to actually change the key mapping, I just redid the physical key layout for my symmetric stagger. The plan was to come up with a layout of my own to fit the type of typing I actually do myself.. A key logger and some number crunching should do that trick, right? =)

I'm able to create my own layouts in Linux. It's very messy, but doable. I have never even tried on Windows, but has anyone had a look at this? http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx

I use it to create a swedish version of colemak, it's very useful. And then you get an installable you can take with you to any windows computer. My colleagues have started noticing that a "crazy layout" appears whenever they hit Alt + shift on some of the computers we have in common... :D the next step is to make them appreciate it, but that might take a while

Wouldn't this mean there is no real problem with colemak or whatever not coming pre-installed with Windows. Someone should write a guide on how to use that software...

[Jim66]

I've just downloaded and installed it now, it's actually incredibly easy to use! It took me 5 mins to create a colemak layout then you just click:

Project --> Build DLL and Setup Package. This creates an install file; you install. Hey presto you have colemak or whatever custom layout you have just designed. I can't believe I haven't come across this before!

[ماء]

WatDvorak for Regular Keyboard

imagedvorak

KB_United_States_Dvorak.svg copy.jpg (62.49 KiB) Viewed 1689 times